Huge Story on Fracking Water in the Bakken

Link to The Bismarck Tribune.

A temporary cease-fire in the war for Lake Sakakawea water was issued Tuesday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps will approve its first surplus water agreement to pipe lake water to the oil field, opening the faucet to what could become a significant source of water for hydraulic fracturing of thousands of wells in the oil patch.

Larry Janis, division director for the corps’ Omaha district office, said in an email to Bob Shaver, who directs water appropriations for the State Water Commission, that the agreement was approved at corps’ headquarters in Washington, D.C. The paperwork will be processed in Omaha, Janis said.

The State Water Commission has been sitting on 20 applications for a total of 70,000 acre feet of lake water since the corps said nearly three years ago that it will begin charging a fee for storing the water and needed time to implement the storage policy, said water resource engineer Dan Farrell.

I did not read the "small print" so I do not know what is all about.  All I know is that if the Corps charges a fee for "storage" they are also liable when their "stored water" floods.

For newbies: the amount of water taken from the Missouri for fracking is minuscule. I've talked about that ad nauseam.

Economic Development in Dickinson: Two Hotels, Apartment Complex in West Ridge Center

Link here to The Dickinson Press.

Roers officials said Wednesday that deals to bring more retailers to west Dickinson are in the works, but details are under wraps until after the holidays.

West Ridge Center is the retail corridor in a 500-acre development near Interstate 94 Exit 59. Roers announced in June some of the stores and businesses that would be opening there, but has been tight-lipped ever since.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss them yet,” Roers Vice President Larry Nygard said.
Dickinson City Planner Ed Courton said that two hotels and an apartment complex have been granted building permits at the retail and residential development.

Reuters: Unemployment Claims Fall Sharply -- Thursday Morning Links -- Nothing On the Bakken -- For the Bakken, Scroll Up, Down, or Sideways -- Unemployment Claims: Lowest in .... Two Months!

WSJ Links

Note for newbies: I post links to the WSJ so I can read them later on the iPad. I subscribe to the print/on-line edition of WSJ, but I prefer the print edition and have not downloaded the app (if there is one) and have not registered for the on-line edition. For me, the WSJ links help put the Bakken in perspective. Unless you are interested in non-Bakken articles, I would skip this page. Some folks who write me about the "WSJ links" suggest they have trouble finding posts about the Bakken on this website because of these non-Bakken posts. Whatever.


Section D: great photo of an Apple iPad (simply called a table in the caption, but "we" all recognize it) on the dash of a supervisor driving on Logan Airport. Speaking of which, Google [$10 billion tax free off-shore] has just released its "IOS Maps" app with turn-by-turn directions. It will be a huge hit this Christmas. It downloads for .... free.

Section C: Yup, here it is, as reported in the MDW two days ago:

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. repurchased $1.2 billion in stock from an unnamed shareholder, an unusual deal for a company that typically eschews buybacks.

Berkshire bought the shares from a "long-time shareholder," allowing it to cash in on the holdings before the federal government raises taxes on such gains. 

Yup, the ObamaCliff. Another article on same story.

Section B: someone else decided it was worth reporting the number of companies accelerating dividends ahead of the ObamaCliff.

Google has come under complaints that it has quietly made porn harder to find. I cannot make this stuff up.

Section A: no link but the headline story is that the Fed is now focused on jobs, not inflation. Huge, huge story, especially for investors.

Doomsday: the states. States faulted over teacher pension shortfall. States with largest teachers' pension liability, rounded: Illinois, $45 billion; Ohio, $40 billion; Texas, $24 billion; Pennsylvania, $20 billion; Michigan, $18 billion; New Jersey, $16 billion; Colorado, $13 billion; Indiana, $11 billion; Kentucky, $11 billion; Louisiana, $11 billion. But Americans are content/satisfied. Four more yerars.

A quiet day.

Unemployment Numbers

At USA Today, happy days are here again:

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply for a fourth straight week.

The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 29,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 343,000, lowest level in two months. It is the second-lowest total this year.

"... the lowest in ... drum roll ... two months." I cannot make this up. Yes, happy days are here again. Will the Fed raise rates now that unemployment rates are the lowest in two months?

Then this stellar analyis:

Applications spiked five weeks ago because of Superstorm Sandy. The storm's impact has now faded. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell 27,000 to 381,500.

Before the storm, applications had fluctuated between 360,000 and 390,000 this year.

Reuters was also impressed with the plunge in first time unemployment claims.

I don't know about you, but there's not been much change; even "Sandy" seems to be background noise.

Miscellaneous: Medical School Cost. Beekeeping. Nothing To Do With The Bakken

This says it all. The headline:  Buffett, Soros Join List of Billionaires Calling for Tax Hikes They Won’t Pay. Masters of public relations. Grifters.

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Ahead of the ObamaCliff: David Geffen is donating $100 million for 30 UCLA medical scholarships -- unprecedented gift, spokesman.

More than 30 incoming medical school students will get a full ride to UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine thanks to a $100-million gift from the school's benefactor.

My calculator must be broken; maybe someone can calculate how much it costs to go to UCLA medical school based on the data provided at the link.

By the way, the US Department of Defense provides full medical scholarships, also. When I last checked the applications outnumbered available scholarships. Full scholarship for four years of payback, I believe, although that may have changed. One of the best deals in the US. What a great country.

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On another note: wow, it's a gorgeous day in the Boston area. A bit cool, but sunny, no wind. Absolutely perfect for an early-morning bike ride.

I continue to read the best book I've ever read on beekeeping: A Book of Bees, by Sue Hubbell, c. 1988. I'm about two-thirds of the way through, and then this (what a great way to wake up to a beautiful Boston morning):

"... in a typical commercial operation in other parts of the country beekeepers will move colonies from, say Florida, where they have worked citrus flowers, to Ohio for spring dandelion blossoms and then on to the Dakotas, which is one of the best honey-producing sections of the country because of its long summer days and ample bloom of clover, alfalfa, and native plants."

Wonderful.

Wells Coming Off the Confidential List Today Have Been Post; Newfield With a Nice Well

Link here for the wells coming off the confidential list today.

RBN Energy: Houville -- the big new NGL hub in the Marcellus/Utica.

No, this is not the Whoville located south of Mt. Crumpit within the mountainous high range of Pontoos.  And there is no Grinch in this Houville, at least during the 2012 Christmas season.  Instead, this Houville is the center of an emerging Marcellus/Utica based NGL hub soon to take its place among the largest in North America. 

 
Over the next couple of years, almost 500 MB/d of new fractionation capacity will be built in the region, and it will start filling quickly.  Sometime in 2016 or sooner, Houville will blast past Conway as the second largest Y-grade hub in the country, exceeded only by Mont Belvieu.  That’s a big deal.  So we need to spend some time understanding what is happening in this Houville, the big new NGL hub in Marcellus/Utica.

A hugely relevant essay in light of the WMB announcement this past week, in a joint venture to buy up the "remaining" midstream assets of Chesapeake.